Navigating the Challenges of an Independent Medical Practice

Being a self-employed doctor entails all the benefits and drawbacks of being an entrepreneur. As a family physician or specialist, you have the freedom to follow your path and prosper as per your work. However, you still have responsibilities for staff management, upkeep of your physical space, handling all back-office operations, taking on financial and other risks, and new patient acquisition.

Independent doctors remain the cornerstone of American healthcare, as they always have been. They consistently provide personalized care at a cheaper cost than doctors affiliated with hospitals and medical associations. However, they face a number of difficulties in maintaining the independent practice’s seamless operation. Hiring medical office answering services is one way to solve the problem.

An excellent option for a physician’s independent practice is a medical office answering service. Handling calls and setting up appointments frees up administrative personnel’s time to focus on addressing patient care. Additionally, answering services can provide round-the-clock assistance, ensuring that patients have somebody to call with questions or to schedule appointments. This could lead to happier, more committed patients and more efficient office administration.

What are the typical issues that independent physicians and private practices face today, and how can they be addressed to enhance patient care and keep costs down? While it is evident that there is no magic bullet, many of the fundamental ideas behind value-based care have the potential to improve the practices of independent physicians.

Work in Administration

Physicians frequently complain that their practice’s administrative workload is too much and depletes their resources. As these processes become more sophisticated and are not taught in medical school, it can result in increased overhead, exhaustion, and declining margins for physicians who must manage payroll, vendor accounts, billing, and patient information. The resources required to keep up with this continuing instability have crippled many practices due to the constant changes and additions to technology, compliance, security, support staff and wages, billing processes, patient requirements and information, and insurance carriers. The only way for some physicians to exist without going bankrupt is to join systems.

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Deductibles and Reimbursements 

Another critical issue facing independent physicians is declining payments and higher deductible plans that increase the patient’s financial burden. Since timely payments from patients and insurance are essential to their bottom line, many find it challenging to collect enough money promptly. Add to that ever-more intricate payment schemes like Medicare’s MIPS and APM, which do little more than mask the actual amount of money a physician must bill patients and the amount they may anticipate receiving from insurers.

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Minimal to No Work and Life Balance

Being a doctor is hard work no matter what, but running a medical practice may make things even more difficult. It’s simple to overwork yourself when you don’t have a corporate structure or any partners to assist with task management.

According to Medscape, 36% of solo practitioners working in offices are burned out. Overall, 55% of physicians attribute burnout to an excessive amount of bureaucratic chores and 33% to an excessive number of work hours.

Examine your daily activities closely to see if you’re experiencing medical burnout. While you may have little control over your time with patients, you can get administrative support to assist you strike a better work-life balance.

Hiring Right Staff

It’s likely that your small medical office includes a few staff members who help keep things operating efficiently. However, you will eventually need to add more team members as your practice expands and/or when employees move on to their next endeavors.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire is $4,129, so this is no minor concern. Furthermore, it typically takes 42 days to fill a position.

Recruiting mistakes is expensive. Thus, due diligence is necessary. You may make better hires by asking for recommendations from current workers and people in your network. Meanwhile, staffing companies can assist you in filling the gaps, saving you the headache of having a staffing shortage.

Issues with Patient Retention

Although patients have many options, you want each one you treat to become a devoted patient. If they had a bad experience with your practice, they will most likely not come again unless you fix things.

One crucial method of determining your position is to ask patients for their opinions when clinics respond to patients’ unfavorable internet reviews, patient satisfaction levels almost double to 99 percent.

Doctors can overcome numerous obstacles by incorporating services that enhance the comprehensiveness and holistic nature of their business, like answering services for medical offices. These adjustments to the services can help the solo practice succeed. Hiring medical office answering services will improve the clinic’s administrative goals, staff support, patient retention, and doctors’ ability to maintain a work-life balance. For instance, medical office answering services handle ancillary patient communications like appointment reminders, follow-ups after visits, and prescription drug follow-ups.

Conclusion

Independent physicians have the potential to sustain their position as the reliable cornerstone of US healthcare by embracing a courageous approach to practice examination and by closely monitoring developments in the healthcare industry as well as patient preferences. All you need to do is keep an open mind and know where to look for opportunities to help you survive and prosper.